Pages

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Two Eventful Months

I did more wakeboarding, almost twice a week since I got it.
Unfortunately the bindings broke due to a material fault, but I got
them replaced for some better ones.
I am learning a few tricks like jumping kickers with 180 turns,
doing spins, ... but it is all going quite slowly.
It is a lot of fun though and a good balance for my rather inactive job.

End of July Kate and I went to Edinburgh for a long weekend to see a Tom Waits concert.
It was fantastic and one of the few live concerts I truly enjoyed.

The rest of the weekends, weather permitting it, I went skydiving.
I have joined the Skydive Weston club, a much
bigger drop zone than London Parachute School.
In the last 2 months I did more jumps there than the entire year before.

The dropzone is open from Fr. afternoon until Sun. night. Going back to
London on Sat. and return early Sun. morning seems pretty silly, so I bought a tent,
a mattress and a sleeping bag. It is not as comfortable as a VW mini bus,
which I really really want, but oh so much cheaper. Which means more money
left to spend on jump tickets.

Besides doing quite a number of solo jumps, I started jumping 2-ways,
which are much more fun and I learned loads about flying in formation.

Two weeks ago I passed all my tests for the B-license with my 50th jump :).
And last weekend I passed my Formation Skydiving 1 test, which means
I am now allowed to jump with others, or better: I am considered safe to jump with :).

As you can see in the video below I still have lots to learn.
Honestly, I did the same jump before this one and it all went much smoother!
I just blame it on exam phobia! ;)

I now have 64 jumps with a total of over 50min freefall. With having my B license and FS1
I need to set myself some new goals for this year.
So, I am aiming to get up to at least 100 jumps and have my own parachute rig before the end of the year.

Unfortunately the last 2 months were not just all fun.
Cate and I broke up :(
It's been a great 3 years with her and she was the sweetest and most loving girlfriend I have ever been with.
But it just did not work out, we somehow just don't match.